Cartridge feed-belt for machine guns



Dec. 28, 1943. J, A HENDLEY 2,337,657 CARTRIDGE FEED-BLT FOR MACHINEGUNS` Filed Nov. 23, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l J. A. HENDLEY CARTRIDGEFEED-BELT FOR MACHINE GUNS Filed Nov. 25, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PatentedDec. 28, 1943 CARTREDGE FEED-BELT FOR MACE vGUN S James A. Hendley,Middletown, Conn., assigner to The Russell Manufacturing Company,Middletown, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application November 23,1940, Serial No. 366,837

5 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in woven cartridge feed-belts formachine guns.

The Woven cartridge feed-belts heretofore in use have been so rigid andnon-yielding as to fail to satisfactorily meet certain lrequirements inmodern aerial warfare. Thus, in using machine guns in rotatable turrets,as is now done on airplanes, machine-gun belts must be capable ofreadily twisting without interfering with the feed of the cartridges andthe belt to the gun. Also, in certain other uses Where machine guns aremounted in the Wings of airplanes, the cartridge feed-belt is caused totravel in guides which have a winding-back-and-forth snake-like form inorder to avoid braces of the wing of the airplane, which necessitatesthat the feed-belt shall have flexibility in both edgewise directions ofthe belt. The Woven belts heretofore in use are too stiff and rigid tosatisfactorily meet these requirements.

One object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved wovencartridge feed-belt for machine guns, which has all the iieXibilitynecessary to meetall of the foregoing conditions, and yet serves to holdthe cartridges in proper aligned condition in the belt for properfeeding to the machine gun.

With the above and other objects in view, as will appear to thoseskilled in the art from the present disclosure, this invention includesall features of the said disclosure which are novel over the prior art.

In the accompanying drawings Vforming part of the present disclosure, inwhich certain Ways of carrying out the invention are shown forillustrative purposes:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a cartridge feed-belt madein accordance With the present invention, with cartridges therein,illustrating the same in a twisted formation such as occurs while thefeed-belt is being fed to a machine gun mounted in an airplane turret;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of a cartridge feed-belt made in accordance withthe present invention, with cartridges therein, the feed-belt beingdistorted back and forth edgewise in a snake-like manner as occurs whena feed-belt is being fed along a guide or trackway in a wing of anairplane;

Fig. 3 is a perspective View of a fragment of a cartridge feed-belt madein accordance With the present invention; v

Fig. 4 is a face vieW of a fragment of a cartridge feed-belt made inaccordance with lthe present invention, with cartridges therein;

Fig. 5 is a sectional View on line 5-5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a sectionalView on line 6-6 of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a schematic sectional View on line1--1 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 8 is a schematic sectional view on line 8-8 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 9 is a schematic sectional View on line 9-9 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 10 is a schematic sectional View similar to Fig, 7 of'a modifiedform of cross-over Weave; and I Fig. ll is a sectional view similar toFig. 5 but without the cartridge, of a modified' form of fabricconstruction.

In the description and claims, the various parts and steps are identiedby specific names for convenience, but they are intended to be asgeneric in their application as the prior art will permit.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 9 of the drawings which illustrate one form ofthe invention, the cartridge feed-belt 20 comprises two layers or stripsof fabric 2i and 22.

In the particular construction illustrated, each of the strips offabric'2l and 22 is formed of interwoven warp strands and weft strands,the two strips being Woven concurrently, and certain of the Warp strandsof each strip periodically being crossed over into the other strip tobecome Warp strands of such other strip and then again periodicallybeing returned to the rst strip where they again become Warp strands ofthe first strip, as will be more fully hereinafter described.

In woven cartridge feed-belts for machine guns heretofore employed, thecartridge-receiving pockets of such belts have gripped the cartridgessubstantially throughout their length of contact with the cartridges, ina substantially equal degree, particularly the major portion of thepocket which engages the large-diametered portion of thev cartridge.This long length of substantially equal gripping engagement with thecartridge, with the frequent additional fact of substantially equal orgreater rigidity or the edge portions of the machine-gun belts haveresulted in a feed-.belt of such great rigidity and non-IieXibility asto render theY same not satisfactory for modern airplane use.

In Fig. 1 is shown a portion of a machine-gun belt made in accordancewith this invention, lled with cartridges, and illustrating the 4greatrotational flexibility of this feed-belt which especially adapts it forfeeding to a machine gun in a rotatable turret, from a location on theoor in .the turret.- An in Fig. 2 is a portion of such,

a belt containing cartridges shown as arranged in anoppositely-edgewise-distorted r snake-likedistorted condition, as isnecessary when a belt with cartridges passes through a snake-like guideof an airplane wing in being fed to a machine gun located in suchairplane Wing, the guide being of snake-like form in order to clear thebraces of the airplane wing.

I have discovered that the requisite flexibility for accomplishing theresults illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 can be accomplished by providing anintermediate cartridge-gripping region 23 which extends longitudinallyof the feed-belt, and cartridge-guiding regions 22 and 25 on oppositesides transversely of the belt, of said cartridge-gripping region, toproduce a machine-gun feed-belt which, while having the requisitecartridge-gripping and aligning characteristics, at the same timepossesses ample flexibility of the nature hereinbefore set forth.

The cartridge-gripping region 23 includesA a cartridge-grippingpocket-region 23a of each cartridge-receiving pocket 26, each of whichcartridge-gripping pocket-regions 23a. is formed of opposedcartridge-gripping portions 23h and 23o of the strips 2l and 22respectively, which grip opposite sides of the approximately-cylindricalor slightly-conical surface-portions 21 of the cartridges 28. Similarly,the cartridge-guiding region 2d is formed of cartridge-guidingpocketregions 22d of the cartridge-receiving pockets 26, each of whichcartridge-guiding pocket-region 24a is formed` of opposedcartridge-guiding portions 2l5b and 24e of the strips 2l and 22, and thecartridge-guiding region 25 is similarly formed of cartridge-guidingpocket-regions 25a of the cartridge-receiving pockets 2G, each of whichcartridge-guiding pocket-regions 25a is formed of opposedcartridge-guiding portions2b and 25o of the strips 2! and 22.

It is important to have the cartridge-gripping region at an intermediatelocation between, and well spaced from, the edges of the belt, and tohave this cartridge-gripping region. perform the maingripping andholding action. upon the cartridges, and to form the strongest portionof the belt, the cartridge-guiding regions performing comparativelylittle, if any,.gripping action upon the cartridges, they mainly actingas cartridgeguiding and aligning portions which aid in insertingthecartridges into the belt and in retaining them, in suitably alignedrelation to properly feed the cartridges into the machine-gun mechanism.

The requisite gripping characteristics may be imparted to thecartridge-gripping region. 23 of woven cartridge feed-belts, in variousWays. While the gripping action of each cartridge-gripping pocket-regionof each cartridge-receiving pocket could be accomplished by having oneof the two opposed cartridge-gripping portions 23h or 23o provided withcartridge-gripping characteristics, I prefer, and have so illustrated,giving cartrdige-gripping characteristics to both these opposed portions231) and 23e.

In the form of the invention illustrated` in Figs. 1 t9 9, each, of thestripsZi and 22 'is formed of relatively-small weft strands or fillingstrands or picks 29 interwoven with relatively-large warp strands 30alternated with relatively-small. warp strands 3l, in thecartridge-gripping region 23, and in the cartridge-guiding regions 24and 25 is formed of small weft strands 2,9 interwoven with small warpstrands'3l. From Fig. 5 it will be seen thaty in.i thecartridge-grippingY region,

each large warp strand 30 and its adjacent contacting small warp strand3! forms what may be referred to as a group of warp strands, and in thecartridge-guiding regions, each two adjacent contacting small warpstrands 3| forms wnat may be referred to as a group of warp strands.

Each of the large warp strands 3i) in each strip of fabric crosses fromone strip of fabric into the other strip of fabric, along the lines orregions 32 between successive cartridge-receiving pockets 26, theregions 32 being indicated in Figs. 3 and 4 by the dotted lines 32,while the alternate or small strands 3l of the cartridge-gripping region23 do not cross over from one strip to another (Fig. 7). Each alternatesmall warp strand 3l ofthe cartridge-guiding regions 24 and 25 withinthe locations between the ends of each dotted line 32 in Fig. 4 passfrom one strip of fabric into the other along the regions 32 (Fig. 8),while the other alternate small strands 3l do not pass from one strip tothe other. The portion of the cartridge-guiding region 22 which in Fig.4 is above or beyond the end of the dotted line 32,y does ynot have thetwo strips of fabric connected together at all, the warp strands allbeing small strands and none of them crossing over, as is shown in Fig.9, and thus providing edge portions 33 and 34 along the cartridge-nllingedge or side of the belt, which are entirely unco-nnected with oneanother throughout their length, beyond the ends of the dotted line 32,thus providing a construction which gives greater flexibility to thisedge of the belt and also facilitates finding the cartridge-pocket forinserting cartridges therein, and also gives a certain addition to thecartridge-guiding and aligning characteristics of the belt. Similarly,the edge-portions 35 and 36 along the other edge of the belt beyond theends of the dotted forked ends of the dotted line 32 are unconnectedwith one another.

In the form of cross-over weave-construction shown in Figs. 6, '7 and 8,the warp strands cross over from one strip to the other along what maybe said to be a single line, thus resulting in the cartridge-pocketsbeing very close together, as is desirable for certain purposes. Butwhere it is desired to have the cartridge-pockets spaced farther apart,this can be accomplished by employing another form of cross-overconstruction, such for example as is illustratedY in Fig. l0, in Whichcertain of the warp strands cross over at a location 38 spaced a greateror less distance from certain of the warp strands which cross over at39.

The large warp strands 3i! produce large humps 3l which extend inward ineach cartridge-receiving pocket 25 along the cartridge-gripping region23, thus providing a smaller diameter at this portion of the pocket 26than the` remaining or cartridge-guiding portions of the pocket, andthus serving to more tightly grip the cartridge, in fact the essentialvcartridge-gripping action being substantially entirely accomplished bythese large warp strands 33 in the cartridge-gripping;pocketregion.Although each of the particular strands 3!) shown in the drawings isvshown as a single strand, it will be appreciated that each could becomposed of a plurality of strands, either twisted together, oruntwisted and extending along parallel with one another. Also, insteadof depending entirely upon the-large size of the strands 30 to bringabout the gripping action as heretofore explained, theA gripping actioncan also be further increased by holdingY the, warp strands 30undergreater tension while weaving is taking place. Also, a greatergripping action can be accomplished by crowding the large strands 3!)and small strands 3l of the cartridge-gripping region tighter togethertransversely of themselves to still further increase thecartridge-gripping action.

In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 11 in which a sectional viewsimilar to Fig. 5 but without the cartridge, of a modified structure isshown, all or" the warp strands 3l are shown of small size andinterwoven with small weit strands 29, the Warp strands 3l in thecartridge-gripping region 23 being packed closer together transverselyof themselves than is the case with the warp strands 3l in thecartridge-guiding regions 2&3 and 25, thus bringing about a tighter,tougher, stronger cartridge-gripping action in the cartridge-grippingregion 23 than is true of the cartridge-gripping action of thecartridge-guiding regions 213 and 25. The cartridge-gripping action canbe still further increased by holding the Warp strands in thecartridge-gripping region under greater tension than the Warp strands inthe cartridge-guiding regions, While Weaving is taking place.

The invention may be carried out in other specific Ways than thoseherein set forth Without departing from the spirit and essentialcharacteristics of the invention, and the present embodiments are,therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and notrestrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalencyrange of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.

claim:

l. A iiexible woven cartridge feed-belt for machine guns, comprising:cartridge-receiving pockets extending transversely of the belt; anintermediate cartridge-gripping region extending longitudinally of thebelt; cartridge-guiding regions extending longitudinally o the belt, oneon each of opposite sides of said cartridge-gripping region; each pockethaving a cartridge-gripping pocket-region forming part of saidlongitudinally-extending cartridge-gripping region, andcartridge-guiding pocket-regions forming parts of saidlongitudinally-extending cartridge-guiding regions; eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region having opposed cartridge-grippingportions, and each cartridge-guiding pocket-region having opposedcartridge-guiding portions; each of said portions being formed ofsubstantially uniformly interwoven warp-strands and Weit-strands; theWarp-strands of one or the opposed cartridgegripping portions oi eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region being of more than thirty per centgreater total cross-section area per unit of width oi acartridge-gripping pocket-region than the same width of anycartridge-guiding pocketregion.

2. A flexible woven cartridge feed-belt for machine guns, comprising:cartridge-receiving pockets extending transversely of the belt; anintermediate cartridge-gripping region extending longitudinally of thebelt; cartridge-guiding regions extending longitudinally of the belt,one on each of opposite sides of said cartridge-gripping region; eachpocket having a cartridge-gripping pocket-region forming part of saidlongitudinally-extending cartridge-gripping region, andcartridge-guiding pocket-regions forming parts of saidlongitudinally-extending cartridge-guiding regions; eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region having opposed cartridge-grippingportions, and each cartridge-guiding pocket-region having opposedcartridge-guiding portions; each ofvsaid portions being formed ofsubstantially uniformly interwoven warp-strands and weft-strands; thewarp-strands of one of the opposed cartridgegripping portions of eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region being of more than thirty per centgreater total cross-sectional area per unit of width of acartridge-gripping pocket-region than the same width of anycartridge-guiding pocketregion, the warp-strands of said greater totalcross-sectional area of alternate pockets being located on one face ofthe belt and of the other pockets being located on the other face of thebelt.

3. A flexible woven cartridge feed-belt for machine guns, comprising:cartridge-receiving pockets extending transversely of the belt; anintermediate cartridge-gripping region extending iongitudinally of thebelt; cartridge-guiding regions.

extending longitudinally of the belt, one on each of opposite sides ofsaid cartridge-gripping region; eacn pocket having a cartridge-grippingpocket-region forming part of said longitudinallyextendingcartridge-gripping region, and cartridge-guiding pocket-regions formingparts of said longitudinally-extending cartridge-guiding regions; eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region having opposed cartridge-gnppingportions, and each cartridge-guiding pocket-region having opposedcartridge-guiding portions; each of said portions being formed ofsubstantially uniformly interwoven Warp-strands and weft-strands; thewarp-strands or one of the opposed cartridgegripping portions of eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region including warp-strands each of which isof considerably greater cross-sectional area than any warp strand of anycartridge-guiding pocket-region.

4. A flexible woven cartridge feed-belt for machine guns, comprising:cartridge-receiving pockets extending transversely of the belt; anintermediate cartridge-gripping region extending longitudinally of thebelt; cartridge-guiding regions extending longitudinally of the belt,one on each of opposite sides of said cartridge-gripping region; eachpocket having a cartridge-gripping pocket-region forming part of saidlongitudinallyextending cartridge-gripping region, and cartridge-guidingpocket-regions forming parts of said longitudinally-extendingcartridge-guiding regions; each cartridge-gripping pocket-region havingopposed cartridge-gripping portions, and each cartridge-guidingpocket-region having opposed cartridge-guiding portions; each o saidportions being formed of substantially uniformly interwoven Warp-strandsand weft-strands; the Warp-strands of one of the opposedcartridgegripping portions of each cartridge-gripping pocket-regionbeing of more than thirty per cent greater total cross-sectional areaper unit of Width of a cartridge-gripping pocket-region than the samewidth of any cartridge-guiding pocketregion, and including groups ofWarp-strands, one warp-strand of each said group being of considerablygreater cross-sectional area than any Warp-strand of anycartridge-guiding pocketregion.

5. A exible Woven cartridge feed-belt for machine guns, comprising:cartridge-receiving pockets extending transversely of the belt; anintermediate cartridge-gripping region extending longitudinally of thebelt; cartridge-guiding regions extending longitudinally of the belt,one on each of opposite sides' of said cartridge-gripping region; eachpocket having a cartridge-gripping pocket-region forming part of saidlongitudinallyextending cartridge-gripping, region, andcartridge-guiding pocket-regions forming parts of saidlongitudinally-extending cartridge-guiding regions; eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region having opposed cartridge-grippingportions, and each cartridge-guiding pocketregion having opposedcartridge-guiding portions; each of said. portions being formed ofsubstantially uniformly interwoven Warp-strands and weft-strands; theWarp-strands of one of the opposed cartridgegripping portions of eachcartridge-gripping pocket-region being of more than thirty per centgreater total cross-sectional area per unit of CII Width of acartridge-gripping pocket-region than the same Width of anycartridge-guiding pocketregion, and including groups of Warp-strands,one Warp-strand of each said group being of considerably greatercross-sectional area than any Warp-strand of any cartridge-guidingpocketregion, and substantially al1 of said. Warp strands ofconsiderably greater cross-sectional area of alternate pockets beinglocated on one face Yof the belt and of the other pockets being locatedon the other face of the belt.

JAMES A. HENDLEY.

